4G4 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



Biirke is in the truest sense of the word, a writer for the many, let the 

 aristocracy claim him as they will ; and when we see his writings brought 

 into this compass two dozen volumes compressed into two handsome, 

 double columned, well apparelled, arid finely printed ones we cannot but 

 wish the undertaking 1 a success proportioned to its value and utility. All 

 that is wanting to make the work perfect, by rendering it as easy of re- 

 ference as its contents are important, is a copious index ; and this, we be- 

 lieve, is in preparation. 



PARADISE REGAINED, AND OTHER POEMS. BY MARK BLOXHAM, 



A.M. LONDON, 1834. 



IT may appear extraordinary to the uninitiated reader that Mr. Blox- 

 ham should have chosen for the subject of his poem, adopting the self- 

 same title an argument that has been put into immortal verse by Milton. 

 But let our author explain why he has been induced to do so : 



" My reasons for selecting the subject were these as a poet I desired to 

 be all or none Milton stood at the head of English poetry he was said to 

 have failed in the PARADISE REGAINED I had never read his work, nor 

 have to this day the subject suited my taste ; was of the kind which 

 alone, by its magnitude and dignity, filled the cravings of my mind in 

 consequence of having been already treated by Milton, met my views of 

 emulation, as a poet having been unsuccessfully treated by him, (a result, 

 in my opinion, the necessary consequence of its requiring a sameness of 

 machinery, more or less, with that in which he had been previously trium- 

 phant) the field was open for the erection of a building, to harmonize with 

 his, and perfect the general effect, without detracting from the PARADISE 

 LOST I also considered and do consider the subject, as affording the 

 amplest materials for poetry of the highest order." 



Now, we think it might have occurred to Mr. Bloxham, even admitting 

 for a moment that Milton had failed in his " Paradise Regained," that the 

 consequence of such failure on his part being to be attributed, on our 

 author's shewing, to the necessary sameness of machinery, is a result to 

 which Mr. Bloxham himself was equally liable. But the feeling which 

 prompts a man to undertake a subject to which he conceives Milton to 

 have been incompetent, is not to be reasoned with. We remember some- 

 thing like it described by a poet of the latter end of the last century. He 

 says, 



" So might an ill-conditioned flea, 



Upon its lusty limbs descant, 

 And cry with saltatory glee, 



' Lord bless us ! I'm an elephant.' " 



We ass uredly shall say very little of our author's " Paradise Regained." 

 We are withheld from casting ridicule upon it, by the sacredness of the 

 subject. It may be as well, however, to give one specimen. It is rather 

 gritty, and awkward for recitation ; but it must serve for want of a better : 

 " Before him stretched, a wild and dismal view, 

 Lay Hell outspread her darkly burning lake 

 Of fluid brimstone on whose lurid heave 

 Of mountain cylinders, with unbroke crest, 

 In sweltering ridge succeeding other, lay 

 Mid fiercest lightnings darting, vengeful, round, 

 And hoarsest thunders harsh, astounding roar, 

 Like mighty hulks dismantled, tempest-lost, 

 That once Armada formed, the length of some 

 Who glorious erst held heaven but now their turn, 

 That periodic comes, to feel their crime." 



